Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

A salon manager. An Army reserve captain. A student. An accountant. An entrepreneur. They had gone out on a Saturday night for the simplest of reasons: to have fun. The youngest was 18; just three were over 40. Here, brief portraits of 49 young lives cut short.

Originally from Eastover, S.C., Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32, was working at Pulse on the night of the shooting. Ashleigh Alleyne, Ms. Drayton’s girlfriend from 2010 to about 2015, told The Orlando Sentinel that Ms. Drayton had struggled with drugs but had been working hard to turn her life around. “She was changing,” Ms. Alleyne said.

Patricia Drayton Banks, Ms. Drayton’s aunt, on Monday commemorated her niece on her Facebook page. She wrote, “While keeping the others in Orlando in prayer, keep my brother, his wife and both our families in your prayers. R.I.P Dee Dee. You know this Auntie will miss you.”

Continued

Scrolling through the Facebook profile of Stanley Almodovar III, a reader will see image after image of a young man who seemed to love flirting with the camera.

He changed his hair frequently in color and style. His friend Hazel Ramirez told The Washington Post that Mr. Almodovar was comfortable with his sexuality. It was evident on his Facebook page that he was unafraid to express it. In a May 28 post in which he updated his profile image, he wrote, “Yes I wear makeup and I’m still a man about it tho.”

His mother, Rosalie Ramos, told The Orlando Sentinel that her son, a 23-year-old pharmacy technician, had posted a Snapchat video of himself singing and laughing on his way to Pulse nightclub. “I wish I had that (video) to remember him forever,” she told the newspaper.

Amanda Alvear was dancing and enjoying music on a crowded dance floor at Pulse before shots rang out.

Ms. Alvear, 25, had posted a series of short videos to her Snapchat account, one of which appears to capture the moment that the gunman began firing into the crowd. In the video, Ms. Alvear looked confused as the shooting began. “Shooting,” she said. The rest of her sentence was drowned out by gunshots — at least 17 shots in six seconds.

Ms. Alvear was at the club with her best friend, Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26. Neither survived the shooting, Ms. Alvear’s sister, Ashley Velez, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

In a Facebook post, Ms. Alvear’s brother, Brian Alvear, wrote that he would not say the suspect’s name. “He’s an instrument of hate, I won’t spread that,” Mr. Alvear wrote. “I will spread a message of love in Amanda’s name.”

Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26, was with his partner, Simon A. Carrillo, when they both were killed at Pulse in Sunday’s shooting, according to posts on Facebook.

Friends and relatives mourned Mr. Aracena-Montero’s passing on the social network. Joel Aracena, a cousin who lives in the Dominican Republic, where Mr. Aracena-Montero was originally from, remembered him for innocence, humility, wisdom and love for his family.

Mr. Ayala began working with the nonprofit organization in December 2011 as a biologics assistant, most recently serving as a platelet supervisor in the Orlando laboratory. “Rodolfo was a highly respected member of the OneBlood family. He was passionate about saving lives and took great pride in the lifesaving work he performed,” the organization said in a statement.

Mr. Ayala, from San Germán, Puerto Rico, shared his knowledge and best practices with co-workers and worked diligently as part of a team, the statement said. “He was a caring and friendly person and will be greatly missed by everyone who had the honor of knowing him,” it added.

Mr. Ayala did not go out very often, but when he did, he danced, said his friend Johnny Rivera Muñiz.

“He loved to dance salsa and all kinds of Latin dancing,” Mr. Muñiz told The Orlando Sentinel. “He didn’t even drink, because he had a long drive home and always wanted to be safe.”

For Antonio Davon Brown, 29, work and military service were points of pride.

Mr. Brown, 29, was a 2008 graduate of Florida A&M University and had been a member of R.O.T.C. during his time there, the school said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Brown was a captain in the Army reserves when he died, The Army Times reported. Lt. Col. Kelvin Scott, who taught Mr. Brown in R.O.T.C., described Mr. Brown as an upbeat, hard worker.

“He was a very positive person with a very good sense of humor,” Colonel Scott said. “He was willing to work very hard to earn his commission.”

Mr. Brown worked at Lowe’s as a human resources manager, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company praised Mr. Brown’s military record, which included a tour of duty in Kuwait, Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, wrote in an email.

On Facebook, several members of Kappa Alpha Psi, a predominantly African-American fraternity, said that Mr. Brown had been a brother. “Let us remember our fallen Rattler,” Chris Davis, a fellow Florida A&M alumnus, wrote on Facebook, “for what he did in life and for all he touched.”

Darryl R. Burt II, 29, was a financial aid officer at Keiser University in Jacksonville, Fla.

“He was personable, social and easygoing,” Shawn DeVries, the president of the Jacksonville Jaycees, told The Orlando Sentinel. “Both socially and professionally, he was always interested in making positive impact on people’s lives and in the community.”

In March, Angel L. Candelario-Padro moved from his home in Chicago to Orlando, Fla., for a change of pace. Originally from Guánica, Puerto Rico, Mr. Candelario-Padro, 28, found work in Florida as a technician at the Florida Retina Institute and as a Zumba instructor.

Leticia Padro, an aunt of Mr. Candelario-Padro’s, said he had gone to Pulse with a friend who survived, according to Univision. She described her nephew as “a good boy, without vices, very humble, respectful, studious.”

Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25, was a housekeeping supervisor at APDC Services, a resort staffing company in Kissimmee, Fla., according to The Orlando Sentinel. He came to the United States from Huichapan, Mexico, according to his Facebook profile.

“He was extremely friendly, very dedicated to his family, to his co-workers,” his supervisor, Alicia Amarro, said. “It is very difficult. Everybody loved him.”

“I can’t wait to share all the wonderful memories that we have with my son. I know you loved him so much and he will know that. I love my brother so much and I’m missing you dearly. You are my hero Cory Connell.”

Rudy Darden, Mr. Connell’s English professor at Valencia College, said in a telephone interview that Cory was a student in his writing class. During one assignment, the 24 students had to share their impressions of the different influences. “He had so many layers of cultural connections,” Mr. Darden said, recalling how Cory had mentioned his own Christian faith, but also that he was a straight man with friends that night at a Latin-themed gay event. “It was just kind of reassuring that someone so young had broadened his thinking and his authorial voice.”

Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25, was ambitious. He set his sights on starting his own business, and made it happen.

Mr. Crosby, who grew up in Statesville, N.C., started his own company called Total Entrepreneurs Concepts, in Saginaw, Mich.

As part of his retail management work, he ran campaigns for DirecTV and AT&T from kiosks in big box stores, such as Best Buy and Walmart.

“He knew what he wanted in life and he went out and got it,” said Brian Reid, who worked with Mr. Crosby for about a year as a recruiter for his company.

The acronym for his business is a reflection of his initials, T.E.C. About 20 people worked for him.

“I would say the morale is really low,” Mr. Reid said. “Everybody is upset. He was a boss, but we are all like family. We were very, very close.”

Mr. Reid said they had a telephone conversation shortly before the shooting. Mr. Crosby had traveled from Michigan to Statesville last week to attend the graduation of a niece. He then went off to Orlando to visit friends.

“He was in good spirits and laughing,” Mr. Reid said. Mr. Crosby, he said, was “the nicest guy I have ever known.”

“Nobody can say a bad word about him. He always had a smile on his face, he always loved to laugh.”

Mr. Crosby graduated from West Iredell High School in 2010.

In an interview with The Statesville Record & Landmark, Ken Darty, a lawyer, said Mr. Crosby had been friends with his children when they were young, joining a basketball team for fourth and fifth graders.

At first, Mr. Crosby struggled in his first season on the team, said Mr. Darty, who was the coach. But then he improved.

“He worked hard and improved so much that he played most of the time,” Mr. Darty said.

Originally from Eastover, S.C., Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32, was working at Pulse on the night of the shooting. Ashleigh Alleyne, Ms. Drayton’s girlfriend from 2010 to about 2015, told The Orlando Sentinel that Ms. Drayton had struggled with drugs but had been working hard to turn her life around. “She was changing,” Ms. Alleyne said.

Patricia Drayton Banks, Ms. Drayton’s aunt, on Monday commemorated her niece on her Facebook page. She wrote, “While keeping the others in Orlando in prayer, keep my brother, his wife and both our families in your prayers. R.I.P Dee Dee. You know this Auntie will miss you.”

Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26, was at Pulse with her best friend, Amanda Alvear. Neither survived the shooting.

“It is not fair that such a horrific act of hate would take the life of a beautiful soul,” CEs Flo, who identified himself as Ms. Flores’s brother, wrote on Facebook. “… Marisol I love you. My little baby sister.”

Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22, went by the nickname Ommy among his close friends and family. Mr. Gonzalez-Cruz worked at UPS and was at the club with a friend on Saturday night, his aunt, Sonia Cruz, told The Associated Press.

“Peter makes a difference everywhere he goes,” Ms. Cruz, said. “He was a happy person. If Peter is not at the party, no one wants to go.”

Juan Ramon Guerrero was just a few weeks shy of his 23rd birthday, said his uncle, Robert Guerrero, 51, who, like his nephew, lives in Orlando.

“He was a wonderful student; he was in his third year in college,” Mr. Guerrero said. “A very kind human being. A wonderful son. He didn’t deserve none of this.”

Mr. Guerrero said his nephew was studying at the University of Central Florida. “He was not a party boy,” Mr. Guerrero said, but he said his nephew, like other members of his Dominican family, liked Latin music, which was playing at Pulse on Saturday night.

On Facebook, Mr. Guerrero wrote: “Once again the tentacles of death have touched our family, this time at the hands of a coward, a scoundrel, a disgusting human being without any scruples.”

Mr. Guerrero was at Pulse with his boyfriend, Christopher Leinonen, known to friends as Drew, who was also killed at the nightclub. “They were always together,” said Garrett Nickel, 22, a prelate student at University of Central Florida. “If you saw one, you saw the other.”

Frank Hernandez, 27, who was known as Frank Escalante, was proud to be gay. A picture he posted on Facebook showed him posing in a “GAY O.K.” shirt, and the photograph had been changed to show the colors of the rainbow flag.

In the hours after the shooting at Pulse, Mr. Hernandez’s sister, Julissa Leal Escalante, drove from her home in Lafayette, La., to Orlando, Fla., to await word of his fate.

“I don’t understand why he had to be one of the many victims who didn’t make it,” she wrote on Facebook when she learned that he had died. “Why did it have to be him of all people?”

Ms. Leal Escalante said Mr. Hernandez had been at the club with his boyfriend, who survived, when shots rang out, according to The Tampa Bay Times. She said that her brother had moved to Orlando from Texas two years ago "to get away from everyone,” and that he had worked at Calvin Klein.

On Monday, Ms. Leal Escalante changed her Facebook profile to a picture of her brother. In the image, he is shown smiling into the camera and raising his right arm.

Miguel Angel Honorato, 30, was one of at least three Mexican citizens killed in the attack, according to officials. He lived in Apopka, Fla., and worked at FajitaMex Mexican Catering, according to his Facebook page.

On Sunday night, his brother José posted a picture on Miguel’s Facebook page holding his two little babies, with the comment: “Come home bro I’m waiting for you.”

On Monday, his other brother, Enrique Ezequie, wrote a memorial:

“R.I.P Brother Miguel Honorato,” he wrote. “I remember the good old times when we went to Mexico and the days we went to Tennessee. I can’t face the fact that my Blood Brother is gone. I went with you to the mall and told me you liked that mango lemonade from Auntie Anne’s and how you liked them Pumas you got.”

“Your smile was contagious and your sass always entertaining,” she wrote, adding, “You made me feel like a beautiful woman and mother even on days I couldn’t see it, and you had an uncanny knack for making my baby kick on demand when I was pregnant!!”

Mr. Reyes was originally from Puerto Rico, according to his profile, and worked as a manager at Gucci.

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19, was an Arizona native and graduated in 2014 from Skyline High School in Mesa. Kiara Parham, a high school friend, told The Arizona Republic that Mr. Josaphat had been kind and welcoming to her when she moved to Mesa from Chicago. “Jason was the loudest,” she said. “He was always giggling … His laugh was unforgettable.”

Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona posted a statement on Facebook about the attack and Mr. Josaphat: “Heartbreaking to read the stories of the Orlando victims. Among them, Skyline High School graduate Jason Benjamin Josaphat. Only 19. Thinking of his family and his friends, both here in Arizona and in Florida. You have the support and prayers of our state.”

Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30, was an accountant who lived downtown. He was among the clubgoers who hid in the restroom at Pulse while the club was under siege. His mother, Mina Justice, shared the texts she received from her son during his final moments. “Mommy I love you,” his first message, sent at 2:06 a.m., read. His final message, sent about a half-hour later, read: “He’s coming. I’m gonna die.”

Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25, started dancing at the age of 10 and was comfortable with any number of styles, from salsa to ballroom, his cousin Ana Figueroa told The Orlando Sentinel. Born in Puerto Rico, Mr. Laureano Disla moved to Orlando about three years ago to become a dancer and choreographer, Ms. Figueroa said.

“I want people to remember Anthony as someone who was very happy and very kind,” Ms. Figueroa said. “This is just devastating for our family and his friends.”

When Brittany Sted met Christopher Andrew Leinonen six years ago working at a mental health facility where he was a counselor, they quickly bonded over similar interests.

They both went to the University of Central Florida, both were vegetarians, and shared a birthday and a love for electronic music. They were particularly into an artist known as deadmau5, and they often shared dating experiences.

In the past year, Mr. Leinonen, 32, met 22-year-old Juan Ramon Guerrero, and they turned out to be a perfect match for each other, Ms. Sted said.

“They were sort of like little Swiss Army knives, always balancing each other out and pulling out whatever they needed,” she said.

On Saturday night, two friends asked Mr. Leinonen, who went by Drew, and Mr. Guerrero to join them at Pulse. As the night was winding down, the men were ready to leave. The two friends wanted to use the bathroom, so Mr. Leinonen and Mr. Guerrero waited for them on the dance floor, Ms. Sted said.

A short time later, the gunman stormed into the club. The two friends escaped, but Mr. Leinonen and Mr. Guerrero were among the 49 people killed.

Constantly joking, Mr. Leinonen had worked in mental healthcare. He was a film connoisseur.

“He has an entire wall of all these DVDs and foreign films, most of which I’ve never heard of,” Ms. Sted said. “He could tell you all about them.”

He liked anime and Star Trek, and was known to have obscure trinkets, Ms. Sted said. He also had a passion for the game Dance Dance Revolution, playing it at home and in arcades.

A single mother of 11 children, Brenda McCool often went to Pulse with her son Isaiah Henderson, 21, according to NBC News. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, she posted a video of energetic dancing to Latin music.

She often posted positive sentiments to greet her Facebook friends in the morning.

“Every journey has an ending, and every ending is a new beginning!” she posted on June 9. “Good morning everyone.”

“Hardships make us strong.” she wrote on June 1. “Problems give birth to wisdom. Sorrows cultivate compassion. Those who have suffered the most know the trials and tribulations of life and still seem to smile . Good morning.”

God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way,“ she wrote on May 31. "Good morning.”

One of her sons, Farrell Marshall, described her on a GoFundMe page as a two-time cancer survivor.

Akyra Monet Murray, an honors student and basketball star at West Catholic Preparatory High School in Philadelphia, was on a vacation with her family in Orlando when she visited Pulse. The high school confirmed that she was one of the victims.

“Akyra was a respectful and self-determined young woman who served as a natural leader to her teammates and all that observed her from afar,” Beulah Osueke, the head girls’ basketball coach, said in a statement. “She graduated third in her senior class and led our team in scoring for the past two seasons. What she displayed in academic and athletic excellence, she also displayed with her shining personality.”

Ms. Murray intended to play basketball next year at Mercyhurst University.

“Omar was only 20 years old,” Jose Angel Rodriguez said of his friend, Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, in an emotional video that he posted to Facebook. “He had an entire life ahead of him. He was a happy soul. All he liked to do was just dance, all he liked to do was listen to music.”

He lamented the likelihood that his friend, and the others who had died, had been targeted because of their identity. “To think that he just went out to have a good time, and now he’s not going to come home,” he said. “It’s a scary thought. You would think that in 2016, I wouldn’t have to be scared. I wouldn’t have to live in fear.”

Claudia Mason, 70, who worked with Mr. Ocasio-Capo at a Starbucks, told The Associated Press that her fellow barista had been an outgoing young man. “Omar got along with everyone,” she said. “Young, old, male, female, gay or straight, it didn’t matter to Omar.”

Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25, went by Drake on Facebook, where he said he lived in Puerto Rico but was from the Dominican Republic.

“He was a very sweet guy,” said his niece, Tiffany Ortiz, 23. “He always made everyone laugh and he was very kind of everyone.”

He graduated from J. P. McCaskey High School in Lancaster, Pa., in 2010, said Kelly Burkholder, a spokeswoman for the school district. He also studied law at Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico, according to Facebook.

Mr. Ortiz-Jimenez was in Florida to attend a Selena Gomez concert on the Friday before the shooting. Ms. Ortiz said he had talked about the show nonstop since he bought the tickets a few months. “He loved her, he absolutely loved her,” she said.

He also loved keeping himself in good shape, going to the gym five days a week. And he was looking forward to his birthday next month. “His personality was amazing,” Ms. Ortiz said. “He could always lift anyone’s spirit up if they were down, he was that type of person.”

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, one of the first victims identified by the authorities in Orlando, was nicknamed Shaki and had been married to his husband for about a year, said his cousin, Orlando Gonzalez, 26.

Mr. Ortiz-Rivera, 36, lived in downtown Orlando with his husband and worked at a Party City and a Sunglass Hut, Mr. Gonzalez said.

Mr. Ortiz-Rivera had other passions. “He was very artistic,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “He was all about interior design. He actually knew how to cut hair and stuff. He was the one that everyone in the family” went to for design advice.

And, Mr. Gonzalez said, his cousin was “a goofball” who liked to dance.

“We always went to clubs together,” Mr. Gonzalez said, adding that his cousin liked house music, or “anything he could dance to, pretty much.”

Mr. Ortiz-Rivera went to Pulse on Saturday night, and did not come home.

Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35, met his longtime partner, Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, while working at a perfume shop in Orlando, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Mr. Perez sold him Declaration by Cartier, and they fell in love when they later crossed paths in a nightclub, the Sentinel reported.

Standing in the doorway of her small apartment on Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn, Gertrude Merced was visibly distraught as she spoke about the death of her son.

“I don’t even know how to mourn right now,” Ms. Merced said. “I don’t know how to grieve right now.”

Her son, Enrique Rios, was on vacation in Orlando, when he was killed in the shooting rampage early Sunday morning.

Mr. Rios, 25, lived in Brooklyn with his grandmother, serving as her caretaker. He volunteered with older people through a home health care agency, and studied social work at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, according to his Facebook profile.

He was a caring man with a passion for helping older people, Ms. Merced said.

“No one can share wisdom with you like the elderly,” she said.

Mr. Rios was a devout Baptist like his mother, who said they would pray and read the Bible together. He also loved to dance and cook, she said.

“Our relationship was wonderful,” Ms. Merced said. “He loved being in the kitchen with his mama.”

After hearing the news of her son’s death on Sunday, Ms. Merced created a GoFundMe page to help pay for transporting her son’s body back to New York.

The page had raised pledges of more than $22,000 from 517 donors by Monday night.

“My family is torn apart and all I would like is to have my son with me,” Ms. Merced wrote on the page. “Please help me bring my son home for a proper funeral.”

Her eyes filling with tears, Ms. Merced spoke about the need to love others, even in the worst of times. The shooter responsible for her son’s death also had a family, Ms. Merced said, and those parents are now also mourning the loss of a son.

“What I’m asking is that his memory is not one of anger or hatred,” Ms. Merced said. “There’s a flip side to everything.”

“He wanted to be the best at what he did, and he would work very hard to achieve that,” Ivonne Irizarry, a friend, told The Orlando Sentinel. “So if he had to put in the long hours to get it right, he’d do it. If he had to stay to work a double [shift], he did it. That’s why whatever job he went to, he became a manager.”

As word spread that Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35, was one of the victims of the Orlando shooting, his friends offered tributes online, describing him as a dedicated father and talented dancer whose professional work included Disney Live. In his Facebook profile photo, he rests his young son on his knee.

“He is so talented, what hurts the most is that he’s one the best fathers I know, he would work multiple jobs and pass on hanging out with friends just to make an extra dollar for his son,” Kyle Vest wrote on Facebook.

“Heaven has gained a talented salsa dancer who had a lot of dreams and aspirations,” Eric Torres Santiago wrote.

Judging from his Facebook profile, it was evident that Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24, was close with his family. In one picture, he sat with his brother, Junior, who slung his arm protectively around his younger brother. In another image, the two posed with their mother — “I Love Mom” was the caption.

“Everyone knows the bond that I had with my brother,” Mr. Sanfeliz wrote on Facebook on Monday. “We would finish each other’s sentences, knew each other’s thoughts, and could sense when the other was upset.”

Mr. Sanfeliz, who worked at a branch of JPMorgan Chase and enjoyed working out, lived in the Tampa area, according to his Facebook page. Ben Mercado, a friend and an ex-boyfriend of Mr. Sanfeliz’s, wrote in a lengthy post on Facebook that Mr. Sanfeliz had loved to dance.

Mr. Camuy Vega had moved to Orlando from Puerto Rico to work as an assistant producer on a children’s program, “La Voz Kids,” for Telemundo, according to a statement released by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

“The NAHJ familia is heartbroken and offers our condolences to Jonathan’s family in Florida and Puerto Rico,” Mekahlo Medina, the organization’s president, wrote in the statement.

Born in Sarasota, Fla., to a Puerto Rican father, Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34, made it his life’s mission to open doors for gay travelers, especially in Latin America.

He was proud of his Puerto Rican heritage. And as the national brand manager for a travel agency that catered to gay people, he organized what the company’s owner, Al Ferguson, called the first ever gay cruise to Cuba.

“There was so much fear in the American gay community to go to Cuba because of how they would be perceived and treated and potential security risks,” Mr. Ferguson, 54, said. “And Eddie was probably one of the leading voices to say Cuba was exceptionally safe for the gay community, and Cuba was really anxious to welcome the gay community. And it turned out to be true.“

During the trip, in April, Mr. Sotomayor and Mr. Ferguson met with Mariela Castro, Raúl Castro’s daughter and a prominent gay rights advocate there. The two men also posed in front of a poster left over from President Obama’s trip.

And instead of sleeping on the ship during their stay in Havana, Mr. Sotomayor found an Airbnb rental near the Malecon, an esplanade along the coast. The company later told him it was one of the first rentals in Cuba, and asked him to write a review.

“He fell in love with Cuba,” Mr. Ferguson said. “He wanted the experience of what it was like to immerse himself in Cuban culture and society.”

Mr. Ferguson added, “I’m just so proud of what Eddie did in his travels, especially in opening doors for gay Americans.”

Mr. Sotomayor also planned a “Drag Stars at Sea” cruise, featuring cast members from the television show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

The two were in touch on Saturday night. Mr. Ferguson was visiting a friend about an hour from Pulse, and Mr. Sotomayor was trying to persuade him to join in. The Latin-themed event there reminded him of Cuba.

“He made a joke in the text to me that it was like the Malecon,” Mr. Ferguson recalled. Twenty-three minutes before the shooting started, Mr. Ferguson said, Mr. Sotomayor sent a Snapchat image of himself, with the signature black top hat he would wear as a tour leader digitally added on his head.

One of the major reasons Mr. Sotomayor liked going to Pulse was its Latin events. While his parents accepted him, Mr. Ferguson said, many other gay people with Latin American roots struggled with prejudice from family members. In Pulse they found a place to be themselves.

Mr. Sotomayor’s boyfriend of about three years had gone outside to put some things into the car when the gunman began shooting. Mr. Sotomayor texted him that he was hiding but safe, and told him not to come back inside, Mr. Ferguson said. About 25 minutes later, Mr. Sotomayor texted his boyfriend again, saying he was still hiding. That was the last message the boyfriend got.

Mr. Ferguson said the boyfriend had not told his parents, who live in Mexico, that he was gay. “It’s a double catastrophe,” he said. “You face such horrible loss and then can’t share it.”

As a vocalist for the cover band Frequency, which he had started and helped manage, Shane Evan Tomlinson gave rhythmic, high-energy renditions of classics from the Beatles and Earth, Wind and Fire. Dressed in a white button-down shirt and thin black tie, he seemed to never stop moving onstage.

In the days before the attack at Pulse, he was engrossed in his entertainment work, as usual. On Saturday at 8 p.m., just hours before Mr. Tomlinson, 33, was killed, the band performed at Blue Martini nightclub in Orlando.

But the fatal shooting of another vocalist in Orlando, Christina Grimmie, a singer on “The Voice,” was weighing on him, too.

On Saturday at 7:24 a.m., the morning after her killing, he posted an article about her on Facebook and wrote: “As a stage performer, you can’t help but keep questioning … How did this get past security?”

He went on: “The only compete protection we have is God and sometimes he needs you more than this evil world! RIP Christina Grimmie.”

An image of the Facebook post was shared by a friend, Deejay Young, 26, who said he had met Mr. Tomlinson after Mr. Tomlinson moved to Orlando from Queens.

“I believe he just wanted a change of pace, and to really do his own thing musically,” Mr. Young said.

They met about four years ago performing together at a gospel show at Epcot called Joyful. Mr. Young also watched as Mr. Tomlinson started Frequency and developed his energetic onstage persona.

“He’s just a very charismatic performer,” Mr. Young said. “He has lots of energy. Depending on what he’s doing, he adapts to whatever that show needs.”

Martin Benitez Torres, 33, was a student at the Tampa campus of Ana G. Méndez University System, based in Puerto Rico, according to The Associated Press. One professor called him a “diligent and extremely hardworking student,” while Carla Zayas, a Spanish professor, said he was “thankful for the opportunity to advance his career and hopeful to make his dreams a reality.”

On June 11, the evening before the shooting, he posted a video of himself cooking with his family.

His Facebook cover photo says in Spanish: “If God takes away my eyesight, it’s because I’ve been allowed to see everything that’s beautiful in the world.”

In a comment on an obituary for Mr. Rivera Velasquez, Dayianie Espinosa recalled moments when the couple fixed her hair and offered words of encouragement.

“You both made me feel so pretty,” the comment reads.

Mr. Rivera Velasquez was from Puerto Rico, according to his Facebook page. Friends told The Orlando Sentinel that he and Mr. Conde had been together for 16 years and he had owned the salon for about seven.

Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50, was the oldest of the victims killed at the Pulse nightclub. On his Facebook profile, he describes himself as a visual merchandiser at Forever 21. He playfully poked fun at his age in a May 28 post of a T-shirt printed with the words, “Never Underestimate an Old Man Who Is Also a Visual Merchandiser (VM).”

Mr. Velazquez was born in Puerto Rico and attended the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, before moving to Orlando. Sheila De Jesus, his sister, posted multiple messages mourning the loss of her brother, including a picture of them with the caption, “I can’t accept it. Still.”

Luis Vielma, 22, was an Emergency Medical Services student at Seminole State College and was enrolled in a CPR class this summer.

Photo

Luis VielmaCredit
via Reuters

The college president, Dr. E. Ann McGee, released a statement on Monday saying, “We are saddened by the tragic events this weekend and the loss of one of our own, Seminole State student, Luis Vielma. We continue to think of, and pray for the victims, their families and friends, the LGBT community, the Hispanic community, our students, and all of Orlando. These events have truly shocked and saddened the Central Florida community.”

Mr. Vielma also worked at Universal Studios at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. His high school friend Eddi Anderson told the Tampa Bay Times that Mr. Vielma loved his job there.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series that spawned films and the theme park, mourned Mr. Vielma’s loss on Twitter, posting an image of the smiling young man in a Hogwarts costume.

Jerald Arthur Wright, 31, was one of those Walt Disney World cast members who seemed to never run out of energy for helping guests, and who, as a Spanish-speaker whose family was from Colombia, forged a particularly close bond with Latin American visitors.

He was also straight, two friends who worked with Mr. Wright said. He had gone to Pulse on Saturday night to celebrate the birthday of a friend, Cory James Connell, 21, who was also killed.

“It’s a great atmosphere,” said Jessica Weyl, 23, a friend who is straight and goes to Pulse occasionally. “People aren’t judgmental. People aren’t feeling the need necessarily to impress each other.”

“At Pulse it’s just calm, cool and collected,” Ms. Weyl added. “No one felt pressure to be anyone they weren’t. I’m straight and I love going there. My brother is gay and he loves going there.”

She said the staff at Disney was like Pulse in that respect — nonjudgmental and open to anyone.

Ms. Weyl had just finished training for a job in Tomorrowland when she met Mr. Wright. “He took me under his wing and kind of showed me everything,” she said. She turned to him for questions about Disney policies, and especially when she encountered a guest who spoke Spanish.

Mr. Wright worked at Disney for about four or five years, first in Tomorrowland and later on Main Street.